Over 50 learners and staff representatives from across Te Pūkenga subsidiaries and Transitional Industry Training Organisations (TITOs) came together for two days last month to share best practice examples of learner-centred initiatives occurring across a variety of regions.
Staff are part of Te Pūkenga Learner-Centered Design Forum, a network-wide forum that has worked together on initiatives like learner-centred research across Aotearoa. Learners from across the network also joined the forum.
This is a great example of the opportunity we have as Te Pukenga to bring together experts in subsidiaries and transitional industry training organisations, together with learners, to identify and better leverage best practice occurring across our regions for the benefit of our learners.
Staff and learners agreed some common practices and initiatives that worked well:
- whakawhanaungatanga well before learners begin their course or training,
- ongoing holistic support through initiatives such as a tuakana/teina or mentoring programme,
- investing in staff development,
- having a network for learner representation at all levels,
- learners being able to connect to industry and employers earlier on
- data dashboards that provide a 360 degree view of the learner.
At the end of the hui a few attendees were invited to share their thoughts on what stood out of them.
Paul Mitchell from Connexis commented that he was impressed by the passion of everyone to see learners progress and succeed. He also agreed with support in the pre sign up process, “it’s critical to harness that enthusiasm and ensure learners can start well. “I can see the opportunity in the future for learners to flow back and forth between the worlds of leaning and work and continue their learning even if their work gets interrupted,” he said.
Erin Lincoln from UCOL said it was fantastic to be there and start to feel like she was part of a bigger whānau. She commented that she was inspired to hear so much passion all vying for the same thing for our students. The first thing that stood out for her was student support and the early intervention models presented “The next step is that our teachers need to be culturally responsive, treat our students with respect, acknowledge their prior learning and allow our students to bring their culture in to the classroom.” She was also inspired by some of the examples staff were taking to analyse data about their learners.
Magenta Mudgway a learner from Weltec & Whitireia hoped that Te Pūkenga would improve consistency, so all learners would be treated the same. They thought some of the concepts shared would benefit from more fluid honest conversation that recognised the ‘in-class’ environment and how they work in the real world.
“Some tutors are amazing, they are the ones that make a huge difference to us. Some need to have more compassion, they need to remember that we have complex lives with outside challenges too.”
The forum will come together again in July. To keep up-to-date on initiatives related to learners see the Learner Journey and Experience page.
The forum will meet again in July to plan the next steps.